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Six world powers and Iran made a "good start" in talks in Vienna toward reaching a final settlement in the decade-old standoff over Tehran's nuclear program, but conceded their plan to get a deal in the coming months was very ambitious.

By late July, Western governments hope to hammer out an accord that would lay to rest their suspicions that Iran is seeking the capability to make a nuclear bomb, an aim it denies, while Tehran wants economic sanctions lifted.

Wide differences remain on how this could be achieved, although the two sides said Thursday that during meetings this week in the Austrian capital they agreed on an agenda and timetable for the talks on such an accord.

The official declined to respond specifically to Iran's suggestions that its ballistic missile program, which the West worries could be a way to deliver an atomic bomb to its target, would not be up for negotiation.

Iranian ballistic missile work is banned under United Nations Security Council sanctions targeting the nuclear program.